Being able to paint colour that creates a convincing impression of light and shadows is not easy. Especially when you’re starting out. A few years ago, it consumed more of my easel hours than anything else. And I couldn’t understand why it was so hard. I mean, the colours were right there in front of
Why I abandoned this painting! (and what I’m going to do about it)
Here’s a quick video I recorded live on facebook earlier this week. It’s 16 minutes long, and it’s all about why I’ve decided to abandon the painting I’ve been working in this week. I’m sharing this because I think it’s useful to know that this happens to all of us sometimes. Mostly artists just share
Can You Really Paint with Just Primaries Plus White? (Part one: Oranges)
Before we start, I have to tell you that the title of this post makes no sense. Why? Because there is no such thing as a true primary in paint. At least, not in the sense that the word is often used – that you can mix any colour from the three primaries of red,
The Limits of the Primary Palette
“You can mix all the colours you need from just three primary colours, plus white.” You’ve heard this, right? You’ve seen the colour wheel, a thousand times, with the primaries, the secondaries, the tertiaries and whatever-aries. This is the first of two posts I’m doing on this “primary” palette – firstly, seeing what range of
How to See Colour as Value
One of the most difficult things about colour at the beginning is being able to see colour as value. To ignore the hue and how intense the colour is and see it as just value. What value is that apple exactly? Is it light or dark? How much darker is the shadow side that the
Why Understanding Colour Frees You To Paint How You Like
When I teach colour, I teach it through a combination of modelling factors and showing people how to match the colours they see as closely as they possibly can. This image below shows what I mean by modelling factors, in case you haven’t come across the term before. It’s a way of breaking down form
Pink and Yellow
First painting in my new studio. It was a while coming, and a while finishing too! This painting is up for auction here.
Why Limit Your Palette?
Be careful of bold statements made by apparent experts. So much of art talk is people repeating what they’ve heard or read somewhere else, without bothering to test it for themselves. I’ve taken bad advice a few times, especially when I was starting out. So I decided a long time ago that I would only
Why is it so hard to finish a painting?
I’ve been working on this painting for five days now. At the beginning, I was feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiety, as I usually do. Excitement at what the picture could be, and anxiety that I won’t be able to get it there. When I’m working on a painting for more than a day,
Dream Big, Take Small Steps
We’re snowed in again and the power has gone. I’m looking out over a landscape made fresh by deep snow. A new year is here. And as always, with it comes the urge to make changes. Usually, we try to make big changes. Often, a few of them at once. Which, you know as well
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